Food & Beverage

Popeyes gives McDonald's a chicken lickin'

It's getting awfully hot in the QSR chicken pot.

Photo: iStock

February 19, 2021

All's fair in love and (chicken) war. Perhaps that's why Popeyes — one of the QSRs that started the whole battle of the bird some years back — is firing a shot at McDonald's as prepares it's newest chicken sandwich for the battlefield.

Earlier this week, McDonald's said it was dropping a specially made hoodie and the chance for a few customers to try its new chicken sandwiches a day before they hit menus nationally on Feb. 24. To win, McDonald's customers must reply between now and Feb. 23 to its CHKNDrp.com website.

Popeyes caught wind of the news, however, and decided to offer its chicken sandwich free on the same day, according to Thrillist. And just to make things a bit more "Roadrunner/Wile E. Coyote-esque," Popeyes' marketing team came up with 50 of the most common ways to misspell McDonald's CHKNDrop.com website and bought up all those domain names.

As a result, the many diners, who accidentally misspell it over the next few days trying to get a preview of McDonald's sandwiches, will actually get redirected to Popeyes site. Once there, they will get a code for a free chicken sandwich redeemable on the day McDonald's launches its new contender in the sandwich wars.

Wendy's also took a swipe at McDonald's, as well as Burger King, which is also launching a new chicken sandwich. Wendy's not only released its Jalapeno Popper Chicken sandwich and salad Thursday, but also issued a statement that said while the offerings at Wendy's were already available, "everyone else" was "playing catch up and distracting consumers with stale chicken drops."

Where this all goes, only the chicken knows.